


Hard observation

by Animillion



Category: Dr. STONE (Anime), Dr. STONE (Manga)
Genre: Angst?, Anxiety, Fluff, Gift Fic, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Misunderstandings, Pep talks, Senku overthinking, TKS, TheKingdomofShipping, happy end, maybe ooc?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-16
Updated: 2021-01-16
Packaged: 2021-03-14 14:40:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,902
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28797024
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Animillion/pseuds/Animillion
Summary: Senku doesn’t think crushing on someone is really for him. Although, it’s not as if he can just make his anxieties disappear. He’s never been the type to ghost someone either. Tsukasa deserves a lot of explaining.
Relationships: Ishigami Senkuu/Shishiou Tsukasa
Comments: 2
Kudos: 31





	Hard observation

**Author's Note:**

  * For [5Lifelines](https://archiveofourown.org/users/5Lifelines/gifts).



Vanity is not something Senku had ever worried himself over. He knew keeping himself well groomed was essential to his own well being, but he never quite understood people who went out of their way to stand out. He never tried to be anyone but himself and he liked it that way. 

These are the things he thinks about as he stands staring at himself in mirror of the boy’s restroom. Of course he didn’t care if people thought he was conventionally unattractive. Those were just nobodies to him. He thought he looked nice. And he never care what other people thought on him. Well, he _did_ anyways. Senku sighs as he lifts his chin to check for any signs of hair growth. None to be found of course. Was that a bad thing? Either way, he was still undoubtedly...

“A boy.”

He sighs at himself, “you can’t grow hair but that doesn’t make you any less of a man, Ishigami,” he tells his reflection as if scolding a child, “and because you’re a boy...” the guy he ten billion percent had a crush on had a high chance of not being into him.

Tsukasa was handsome. Feminine in the face but masculine in his presence and stature. He was undoubtedly a sight for sore eyes. And in Senku’s case, he’s the only person he would consider looking up to see instead of keeping his eyes focused on some bacteria sample under a microscope. Of course Senku didn’t just care about his _looks_. 

Tsukasa has charm and intelligence. He’s not some brawny meathead who fights with no thought. Senku had found himself enjoying long conversations with him. Even over texts. Taiju was the one to typically keep up conversations in the text department. But with Tsukasa, he couldn’t seem to put his phone down for once. Well, until he had to be strict with himself because as much fun as he had been having, he had many other things to attend to. Like sitting at his desk and researching for hours on end. But Tsukasa never seemed to mind when he stopped replying. They always picked up where they left off no problem. 

Senku rests a hand over his left side chest. He crumbled his uniform between his fingers and breaths out slow, deep breaths. That was another problem. When he starts to think about Tsukasa, his heart rate increases. Senku doesn’t mind that he’s attracted to men. In his own experience, he only fell for certain people in the way one would call _love_. There had been someone he had loved before this, or one he’d say he had a similar amount of affection for. But those were just childish puppy love daydreams built together by words alone and oceans apart.

Tsukasa though. Tsukasa was right there. Real. Within his reach. And for once Senku could honestly affirm his anxiety. His normal, teenage anxiety. 

He leaves the bathroom with a deep breath. Staring at himself in the mirror was getting him nowhere. As quick as he could read certain people, these feelings clouded his judgment. If he revealed the truth, he’s scared the outcome will be...

Another aggravated sigh left his lips. Why couldn’t he stop thinking about this? Perhaps he was denying himself too much. 

“Tsukasa-senpai,” Senku freezes. 

Just around the corner, he lets his eyes wander and peep into the other hall. There were few and far between who could call Tsukasa so familiar like that. And he’s never seen this girl around him. She says _senpai_ but he’s certain they’re within the same year. 

“I’ve been watching you for so long and I... wanted to get to know you better.”

Ah, a love confession. How ironic, Senku thinks, considering the turmoil he was dealing with previously. 

“Is that so?” Tsukasa is always so kind when he speaks to people. It’s funny, because the persona is clear as day to Senku. “Sure, I wouldn’t mind that.”

If Senku didn’t think the idea of God was a hoax, he’d say the old deity probably hates him. 

The rapid beating in his chest is too much to bare then. He’s been standing there too long. It’s best if he didn’t get in on peoples private conversations. Tsukasa could be with whoever he wants. She was pretty. Thinking of a pretty girl on his arm almost made Senku laugh. But as soon as the sound reached his throat, his heart clenched in unmistakable sorrow. 

His solace is the science club room. He rests his hands against the cool lab table surface. Senku begs his heart to quit beating so quick. 

_”Sure, I wouldn’t mind that.”_

Senku laughs to himself.   
“Come on god... now you’re just being cruel.”

 _This is perfect, if Tsukasa gets a girlfriend I can just get over my feelings._

Senku doesn’t want to think about the phrase “giving up on him” because it implied he intended to act upon his feelings. That was undecided. Was. 

He pinched the bridge of his nose. If there’s one thing he hated doing it was crying. His father was a natural born crybaby. Perhaps not in honesty, but in a more comedic way. Either way, Senku hates it. He’s happy to have never formed the habit. But it left the real thing feeling so raw and powerful inside him. 

“Senku?” Every bone in his body stills. Shouldn’t Tsukasa be off planning some date with that girl? Not like he can say that right now. “Just now, was that you running in the halls?”

Had Senku ran here? He hadn’t noticed. 

Still, he tries to act cool. He wipes the held tear drop from his eye. “Ah yeah I remembered I had something important to do in here.”

“You didn’t turn the light on.”

It wasn’t really dark in the science room, but seeing things more clear made him feel, for once, dumb. 

There’s silence and he hears Tsukasa shift. He’s not approaching him. That was good. However, it also meant he knew something was up. They were close friends, and Tsukasa was far from ignorant. Of course he’d notice. 

“Did something happen?”

“No.” Senku didn’t mean to sound so cold towards him. “Don’t worry about it, it’s not good to get in other peoples business.” Even though it ten billion percent had to deal with Tsukasa in question. 

Deep down, Senku knew Tsukasa just wanted to make him feel better. Even if he didn’t know what for. He stood there longer, waited patiently to see if Senku would get annoyed enough to tell him more. But that never comes. 

“I have to go to training, but let’s catch up later okay?”

“Yeah, sure.”

He sounds like an ass, but he refuses to care. If he cared then it would only hurt more. Tsukasa leaves without another word, and eventually Senku remembers to breath. 

•••

Tsukasa checks his phone constantly. So much so that his trainer has to glare at him. 

“Listen kid I don’t know what’s up with you today but you have to focus.” He’s never been one to shy away from telling Tsukasa exactly what he was thinking. 

Tsukasa knew he was right. But something about earlier didn’t sit right with him. Senku was a good friend of his. And he had never seen him so _tense_ before. In fact, Tsukasa thought he was crying. After that girl had confessed her feelings he had heard a loud patter of feet against the tile flooring of their school. 

Senku wasn’t someone who would run in a situation like that. In fact, Tsukasa thought he would be one to tease him over it. 

_Sure, I wouldn’t mind that... but if you mean anymore than friends then I can’t accept._

Did Senku know that girl?  
The thought makes him frown. He lays down the weight with a sigh, feeling something heavier on his heart. 

“We’re done for the day.” His voice is absolute. His trainer sighs and nods. There’s no point in disagreeing when he’s like this anyways. 

Tsukasa texts him on the way home. Typically Senku will respond within an hour or two, but the response never comes. At home Tsukasa mulls it over in his head again. 

Did they know each other? That girl and Senku? Had Tsukasa never noticed that even someone like Senku could fall for someone? Women were charming. Tsukasa had his own fantasies but never had he fallen for a girl he’d met- nor had he desired to be in a relationship with them. 

She confessed to him, but Senku hadn’t stayed for the second half of his words. 

“C’mon, don’t be upset with me over something like that.” He stares at his contact photo for the other. Senku grinning devilishly into the camera with his middle finger extended. It was one of his less _classy_ moments, but that day had been fun. Senku’s actions earlier had been weird, and extremely unlike the scientist he knew. 

But even love could make the strongest men weak, or so he had heard. 

The last thing Tsukasa does that night was check his phone. And all it told him was that Senku had read it. 

•••

“Are you and Tsukasa not talking?”

Yuzuriha is observant. Much more than her yet to be high school sweetheart Taiju. Said boy jumps at the thought.   
They’re helping him clean up the science lab, and Senku wishes the last member hadn’t left so early. 

“I don’t mean to be pushy, but I’ve noticed he’s not around as much, and you two don’t eat lunch together anymore.”

It had been two weeks since Tsukasa had told that girl he’d _get to know her better_ , and two weeks since he opened Tsukasa’s message by accident. 

“Ah, he’s probably just hanging out with his girlfriend or something, gotta let the guy have some space.” Senku shrugs his shoulders and dares not show his face to the observant girl. It doesn’t matter, he knew by her proceeding silence that he was caught in a petty lie. 

“Girlfriend!” Taiju perks at the word. He and Tsukasa weren’t as close, but they were still friends. 

“Tsukasa has a girlfriend? Since when.”

Again, Senku shrugs his shoulders. 

“I haven’t heard anything about it either.” Yuzuriha’s words have him needing to wince.

“Well you know that guy, girls always wanting him and all, maybe he is just keeping it quiet.” It would make sense to, after all. Tsukasa is famous and doesn’t need word of any girlfriend getting around. 

After a few moments of more silence, Yuzuriha quietly sends Taiju off on a little mission. She speaks too quiet for Senku to hear her, but berates himself for not catching on sooner. Taiju would do anything for her, and runs off quickly to where ever she had asked of him. 

Then it’s just the two of them. Senku wipes at the lab table with the Clorox wipe again. It’s definitely clean, but he goes over it as if it’s the first time. 

“So what’s _really_ going on?” 

“What do you mean?”

“It’s not like you to just sit in boiling water Senku, it’s clear there’s something wrong going on between you and Tsukasa... I just wanted to know if there was anything I could say to help...”

Senku sighs and finally stands straight, listening to the bones in his back pop. He chuckles low to himself. 

“No,” he puts his hands on his hips, letting his eyes bore holes into the table below, “there’s nothing to be done.”

Yuzuriha is quiet for another moment. She laughs to herself but in no way that is happy. 

“Excuse me for assuming but... you were in love with him weren’t you?”

And there’s the terrible hand that had been wringing him from the inside out for days now. Of course Yuzuriha would notice. Not many people could pick up on such subtle things. It makes him wonder what he did to give himself away. 

“I’m a man Yuzuriha, even if I was it wouldn’t matter...”

“Why not?”

“Most men don’t like other men that way... especially not teenage boys who could have any girl they want... and it’d be so bad for his image- it’s just not statistically-“ Right then he feels something hallow but firm land on the back of his head. He jumps in fright and spins around as he hears the clack of the chalkboard eraser hit the floor. “Hey what the hell!” 

Yuzuriha crosses her arms, “that’s not the Ishigami Senku I know at all! So what if society thinks it’s odd for two men to be together? When the heck did you ever start caring about what society thinks?” 

Senku’s eyes widen. Yuzuriha was fierce when she wanted to be. And she never held her honesty from him. 

“Also when did you start determining things before actually knowing?”

“What are you talking about?”

“How do you know Tsukasa isn’t into men if you’ve never asked?” 

Senku knew she was right. It had occurred to him to just _ask_ Tsukasa about it. 

“Well if he isn’t wouldn’t that be awkward? I don’t really want to deal with getting rejected by the guy I’m into.” His cheeks flare up as Yuzuriha grins at him.

The girl before him sighs as he looks away.   
“And if he isn’t into guys, there’s even less of a chance I’m his type-“

“Senku you’re listening to your anxiety too much, what’s there not to like about you? You’re smart, you two get along well, eat lunches together and he even lets you touch him- do you know how uncomfortable he looks when people touch him?” She takes his hand and smiles at him. 

“Look I know it’s scary because you’re _feeling things_ for him-“

“I’m not scared-“

“And I’m not a brunette- the fact is, is that nothing about this situation is for certain except for the fact that you like him in a way that’s different than friendship.”

Senku appreciates Yuzuriha. He could tell she has her own anxieties about even talking to him about this, but she was making him feel better. 

He’d spent so many hours looking into the mirror that he’d really forgotten that nothing was for certain. Tsukasa could like guys, just because he was Tsukasa didn’t mean there was any less of a chance for him having such feelings. 

Senku sighs, “well... there might be one other thing.” He admits to her the conversation he had heard in the hall weeks ago and the last real conversation he had with Tsukasa. Not to mention the text he hadn’t even replied to. Yuzuriha squeezes his hand and smiles. 

“All you can do is talk to him Senku, you’re a curious guy by habit so I know you can’t avoid it forever.”

She’s right. He moves his hand from hers, only to curl it into a fist to bump her still slack fingers. 

“Fine, if it’ll get you off my case... besides it is annoying avoiding it.”

“There’s the Senku I know,” she grins at him, she would say more but Taiju returns with an arm full of snacks for them. 

Senku thinks about it more as they eat convenience store meat-buns in the club room. He’d ask Tsukasa to meet him somewhere so they could talk. It was totally lame, but if he didn’t do this he would only make it worse as time passed. He could ask him if he liked guys, but that would seem out of the blue after so long that Senku knew he would figure him out instantly. It was better to rip the bandaid off in one go. Even if it made his palms drip with sweat. 

•••

Tsukasa looks to the sky from the secluded park bench he sits upon. He replays the last two weeks in his mind. The weird conversation, the ghosting, and the thing he had witnessed after school that day. 

Tsukasa had finally willed the nerve to go to the science club room after school. He had messaged his trainer that they weren’t meeting that day. After all, he needed to get all of this off of his mind. The only way to do that was to talk to him again. 

However, Tsukasa had seen Yuzuriha and Senku through the crack of the science room door. He didn’t understand where Taiju had gone, as he assumed they were always together with him after school. But it had just been those two. Chatting about something or the other. Senku had sounded emotional, although Tsukasa couldn’t quite hear him. 

But they had been uncharacteristically close. And then two hours later Senku finally text him back. All he had said was _[Meet me in the old park at noon tomorrow]_

It wasn’t even a question. Tsukasa began to wonder if Senku caught on that he would do anything for him. Even keep his distance if he sensed Senku needed it. Even obeying a text after being ghosted for two weeks. The girl he had softly rejected before was quite nice. They hit it off in the friendship department but, as he expected, she soon realized she had jumped the gun with her romantic feelings. She apologized to him about that.

If Senku had feelings towards her, Tsukasa sure was confused about them. After all, he had felt too nervous about how close Yuzuriha was to him yesterday. But perhaps it was his own anxiety. And maybe he had gotten a little angry and didn’t want to show it. 

“Tsukasa.” Said teen looks up to see him there. Something about the sudden attention makes him smile. He was happy to see him. Happy to speak with him again after so long.

“Nice to speak with you again.” It’s a bit petty to say, but he only means it as a joke. Still, he can tell it wounds Senku immediately. 

“Sorry about that,” he apologized?

“Senku, what’s going on?” He just wanted the truth. Why had Senku acted so strange a few weeks ago? Why did he ghost him? Why were he and Yuzuriha so close and alone together? And why was his heart beating desperately in wait for the answer. 

“I’ve been trying to give you space, but you’ve been avoiding me for days now, and I don’t even know _why_.” He had a few guesses but none made complete sense to him. 

“I’m in love with you.” 

What?

“Well-Ah- in the sense that I have a crush on you not that I think we’re destined to be together or something-“ Senku quieted as their eyes come to meet. He rubs the back of his neck from where he stands and makes a noise of discomfort as they stand there. “Aren’t you going to say something?”

Tsukasa blinks slowly. Oh. Senku is in love with him. _Oh. Senku is in love with him._

It all made sense. Tsukasa doesn’t need him to spell it out for him. Not really anyways. 

Tsukasa slowly nods. He needed to say something. But what was there to say? His cheeks grow hot. Ishigami Senku has a crush on him. And for the first time ever, a confession had left him completely speechless. Not to mention overwhelmingly happy. 

“Listen it’s fine if you don’t feel the same but I don’t want to stand here feeling like an idiot.”

“Senku you... like me?”

“That’s what I said.” He crosses his arms. 

Tsukasa swallows thick. How did he feel about that? Looking in the others crimson eyes again he pats the spot next to him on the bench. Senku slowly sits next to him. They aren’t facing each other now and maybe that’s what he needed to get his thoughts in order. 

“It’s okay to reject me, I know you have a girlfriend already.” 

Tsukasa blinks once. Then has to laugh. He turns to him with a raised brow. “What? I don’t have a girlfriend.”

“You told that girl in the hall you would-“

“I _told_ her I would be her friend, and that we could get to know each other better as friends, not as girlfriend and boyfriend.” Tsukasa had been right then, Senku had been there, “but you didn’t stick around to hear the rest huh?”

It’s not everyday you get to see Senku looking so dumbfounded. Even more so his cheeks are tinted pink with embarrassment. Tsukasa was right about one thing at least; love could make the strongest men weak. Or in this case, make the most stubborn scientists go stupid. 

Senku puts a hand over his eyes and groans in embarrassment. “Oh my god I’m an idiot.”

“Yeah, kind of... but so am I,” Tsukasa admits to him, “I thought you had a crush on that girl, and were upset with me over it.”

“You think I’m like that?”

“No- just... overthought it... just like you.”

Senku sighs, and Tsukasa isn’t sure if it’s from frustration or relief but he can’t help but sigh after him. 

It’s quiet a few moments. Tsukasa’s heart is still pounding in his chest and he’s sure Senku’s is too. After all, he had just confessed to him. 

“So you’re into me huh?” He looks at Senku who can only frown at his words. Perhaps he was waiting to be teased. 

“So I am.”

“Does that mean I’m allowed to be into you back?”

Tsukasa feels kind of silly. His cheeks are warm and they’re only getting warmer as Senku’s eyes widen at him. Being away from Senku and not speaking with him until now made Tsukasa realize two things:

Miscommunications are the worst for one. But the second was that maybe he felt so nervous before and more relieved than he should be because, well, he felt the same. 

He was a teenager, and it wasn’t like he didn’t think about these things. But he never thought thoroughly as he should. If he had, he would have probably realized much sooner. Senku meant so much to him. 

“I have a crush on you too, Senku.”

Senku is dumbstruck for a moment. Tsukasa is sure if the cogs in his brain glitched moments ago, now they had come to a full halt. Then he grins. 

“You better not be fucking with me, Tsukasa.”

“You think I would?” 

Senku pauses, “no I... I’m relieved.”

“Could you say you’re excited?” They both laugh at the older teen’s joke and Senku nods slowly. 

Tsukasa holds out his hand for him. It only takes a few seconds for the scientist to figure out he needs to take it. 

“We should talk more, I’ve missed it.”

Senku’s hand is warm and feels nice and shoots an array of goosebumps up Tsukasa’s spine. 

“I want to make fun of you for that but I... can’t say I feel any different.”

His sudden vulnerability only makes Tsukasa happier. 

They move past the small awkwardness. They had laid their feelings out in the open but of course it didn’t change anything. They were themselves after all. Tsukasa has never felt happier to be by him. To be holding his hand on a nice day and talking about pointless things and listening to him laugh. Somewhere along the way he realizes why he had never said _to hell with it_ and accepted a love confession. He didn’t want to see where any relationship took him, not when he already had one in the back of his mind. 

It’s a relief. One they both needed.

**Author's Note:**

> Happy (late) Birthday!!! I hope you enjoyed >w< it’s totally different from last years XD Hope you had a good bday! :D


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